Students from Medical College of Wisconsin Welcomed to UCD

Wed, 27 February 13
09:00

UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science is proud of its partnership with the Global Health Programme, Medical College of Wisconsin. Over the last two years, that partnership has developed further through the enactment of a transatlantic student exchange programme between the two institutions.

The School was delighted to welcome Lydia Mendoza and Madeline Pokorney, who joined us for part of the first semester at UCD.

Reflecting on her time so far, Madeline said:

We got here just over two weeks ago (February 2013) and we spent some time at Temple Street Children’s Hospital, and now we’re based at St Vincent’s University Hospital. It’s been great getting to meet people and learning about how things are done in Ireland – it’s very similar in a lot of way, to the States – you see the same issues, but you kind of come at it from a different perspective in Ireland. Your health system is interesting; we’re moving towards a universal style of coverage in the US, and so from that perspective, it’s interesting to see the Irish system first-hand.

In Temple St, we were on the neurology service, so we got to see quite a few metabolic and congenital conditions. Something we had never seen before was the H1N1 vaccine-related narcolepsy, which I guess is more prevalent in Western Europe and Scandinavian countries, so that was interesting to see. We were also able to spend time in the A&E and shadow general paediatrics on the metabolic clinic at Temple St and saw a lot of conditions that are more common here than are in the States as well, so that was great exposure – things we’ve read about in the textbooks but hadn’t seen in patients.

Lydia said that the famed Irish welcome made the process of adjusting to student and clinical life in another country that little bit easier:

Patients and their families have been really welcoming to us and really inviting when we introduce ourselves, they say ‘oh, welcome, what do you want to talk to us about?’, and they’re very friendly. We really appreciate that – I think that’s part of the Irish spirit maybe, very outgoing and friendly.

Following on from the success of the Wisconsin to Ireland exchange, two UCD students, Sarah Norton and Ruby Hamill, will take an elective at the Medical College of Wisconsin in summer 2013. Sarah and Ruby both competed for these summer electives through the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science Summer Elective initiative.